U.S. Air Force enlisted personnel will be able to fly the remotely-piloted vehicles commonly known as drones, officials announced today. The idea has been kicked around for many years in one form or another, but the recent drone pilot crisis seems to have finally made the Air Force change its ways.

The RQ-4 is purely a surveillance platform and is unarmed, but still the USAF says that we should not expect armed drones to remain solely in the hands of officers either. This first step with the Global Hawk will help inform USAF leadership if they should continue to blend enlisted pilots with officers in other remotely piloted aircraft communities..

The addition of enlisted personnel to the RPA pilot corps is the right move for the USAF to make, even if it is in a limited form to begin with. As unmanned systems become an increasing integral part of America’s air combat arsenal, such a move may not only be logical but absolutely necessary.